Reaching Great Heights

Okay, I can do this....

Hold on tight and PULL...(panting and grunting)

Almost there...steady...steady...don't fall now
YES!!! WOOHOO!!!! Wow! There is a whole other world up here. What's all this stuff on the table? There's no stopping me now...

I am a winner! ;)

Thanks, Jennifer, for giving me this award! Though, I feel like I have not been a very good blogger this summer! There is definitely A LOT that has been left "unblogged." Still figuring out that whole new time management thing! ;) Not to mention everytime I open the laptop, little fingers get in the way!

Okay, with accepting such an honorable award (heehee), comes great responsibility. So I have to answer a little questionnaire, which is all about me and then I have to choose 7 bloggers who I feel are BRILLIANT and I give them the award. They will post their own answers to the questionnaire on their own blog and they will choose 7 more recipients. And so on!

A. Attached or single?
Attached

B. Best friend? Jason, of course!

C. Cake or pie?
CAKE, hands down. I can't bake cake very often because I have no self restraint. I also have the problem of taking bites out of the pan with a fork. Well, the fork never leaves a straight line, right? Consequently, I have to keep eating until the line is straight. Weird, I know.

D. Day of choice? Right now, anyday! But, when I go back to work (blech...sigh), I suppose it will be Saturday.

E. Essential item? Chapstick. It's an addiction.

F. Favorite color? Green

G. Gummy bears or worms? YUCK! ICK! GROSS! Neither!

H. Hometown? NW Ohio

I. Indulgence? A good book, a hot cup of tea, a salty snack, and no interruptions.

J. January or July? July

K. Kids?
One sweet, adorable, high energy little boy who makes me laugh everyday and just melts my heart.

L. Life isn’t complete without? Family and friends

M. Marriage date?
9/25/99

N. Number of brothers & sisters? One older sis and one older bro

O. Oranges or apples? Oranges, but only if they are perfectly sweet and juicy. I will not eat a dry, pithy orange.

P. Phobias? I don't really have any phobias.

Q. Quotes? I love quotes so how can I choose just one! I subscribe to Inspiration Peak so I receive a quote everyweek in my inbox. I received this one about a week after we received PGN approval:

There are no accidents... there is only some purpose that we haven't yet understood. -Deepak Chopra

R. Reasons to smile? So many! Yesterday we went to the zoo with my nephews and niece and my youngest nephew said he wanted to see the "Rabbittory" (conservatory) and the "Grapes" (Great Apes). It was so darn cute and funny!

S. Season of choice?
Spring! I LOVE the fresh energy of Spring after the long, cold winter. I always feel so revitalized.

T. Tag seven peeps! (see below)

U. Unknown fact about me? I dream of going to Machu Picchu someday and I LOVE the challenge of finding the best bargain!

V. Vegetable? Hmmmm...I like all vegetables! I especially love mushrooms, artichoke hearts, and broccoli.

W. Worst habits? I tend to get defensive easily. When I am really stressed, I pick at hangnails until they bleed. Gross, eh? I can also be a tad controlling.

X. X-ray or ultrasound? This one is just weird! Neither!

Y. Your favorite food? My favorite type of food is Mexican/Southwestern

Z. Zodiac sign? Pisces, though I am right on the cusp with Aries.


Now, the I pass the award onto:

Donna
Bobbi
Beth
Heidi
Kelly
Susie
Courtney

All in a day's work

Yesterday was such a great day! We didn't do anything exciting. We had big plans of going on a road trip adventure to the lake or the butterfly house, but decided it was just too darn hot! So, we stayed inside and enjoyed our day of "nothingness." It is these small, seemingly meaningless, everyday moments with my two favorite people that just take my breath away and make me so grateful for my family.

Yogurt explosion!! YUM!

Helping mommy bake cookies...nothing better than licking the beaters...
and the spatula!
Enjoying the final product! Eli loved watching the cookies bake in the oven. He kept running up to the stove and pointing at the cookies with great wonderment in his eyes.
Cookie=blast of energy. Yep, he managed to get this one open.
Superman on his dumptruck workin' a puzzle. It doesn't get any better than this, does it?!?!

Time to jump on daddy. Porter had to get in on the action, too.

Some much needed cleaning. Notice the out of place chairs in the background? Eli also likes to rearrange the furniture.

Laundry time!

Climbin' and pickin'

We have a little climber in the house! Little pea has been attemping to climb for awhile, but just recently started having some success so now it is all he wants to do! With this new skill also comes new bumps and bruises and scrapes. He got his first black eye last week after falling off the front steps! And, no, I didn't get a pic of the black eye. I am sure there will be more opportunities for that!

Helping to unload the dishwasher! Little pea has also really started imitating us and wanting to help out. He loves to push the vacuum, he tries to wipe off the table, he likes to use a wipe to clean his hands, and Jason even found him standing in front of the toilet like he was peeing. Ha!


Pickin' our first pepper harvest! He finally started wearing a hat again. Isn't he cute?!?!


Eli has also discovered that playing in his crib delays naptime! He just started taking longer naps again, but the trade off is lots of fun and games in the crib. Instead of laying right down to go to sleep (as he usually does!), he likes to jump on the bed, blow kisses, wave, sing, do somersaults, and whatever else he can think of to stay awake. It's hard to be mad or frustrated about it because he is so darn cute! We just have to ignore him and try very hard to keep a straight face! At least he is not screaming and crying!!

Little Bookworm

Eli LOVES books. In fact, we could venture to say it is a bit of an obsession for him. His second word (after mama!) was book and he just can't get enough books. We could pull down every book on his bookshelf and he still would not be satisfied! We went to the library the other day so Jason could pick something up and I thought Eli was going to just explode with excitement! He immediately found the plastic bin of board books, grabbed three, and then proceeded to run up and down the book aisles saying "book, book, book, book, book, book." It was very funny and cute, but we had to find some major distraction to put the books back in order to prevent a meltdown. Good thing daddy's wallet has fun velcro! His other favorite things? Throwing himself on Porter's dog bed and pushing his lawnmower around the house.

This is how Jason found Eli when the house got quiet. Yep, it is never good when it gets quiet at our house! Eli parked himself on Porter's bed with his lawnmower and starting pulling books off the shelf! He was very proud of himself!

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah...life is GOOD!! Hmmm...I just noticed he only has one shoe on! Ha!!

Making Connections

This weekend we ventured to Indianapolis to attend our adoption agency's annual picnic/reunion. It was so great to finally meet in person so many of the families and staff that journeyed with us through our process and provided so much incredible support. Eli seemed to enjoy seeing the other kids and running around the park. We also got to meet several of our blogger pals and their adorable kiddos. Even though we were there for several hours, it still was not enough time to catch up and chat with fellow families!

Here we are with our adoption coordinator, Kathy. She shared many sad and many happy tears with us over the months! It was wonderful to finally meet her in person.


We were so happy to see some our friends we met on our first visit trip! We all received our referrals within days of each other and then spent a day in Antigua together in August 2007. At that time, all of our little ones were itty bitty. It was so fun to see how much they have grown! The only one missing is Amy and her daughter, Gianna. We expect to see her next year! Pictured below with us are Jenney, Jim, and baby Leo and Patty, Mike, and baby Emmakate.

Eli and Leo posing for the paparazzi.

Little boy hugs.

"Come on, Eli. Trouble is this way."

Emmakate and Eli's turn to pose together. Aren't they adorable?!?!

Finally meeting Sandy and baby Izzy! We also got to see a glimpse of Sandy's other adorable kiddos while they were running around with their new flutes!

Let's add Gretchen and Gillian to the mix!
Gretchen and Jayden.

On Sunday, we went to the zoo with Karen and her daughter. We met them both on our visit trip in December. It was so much fun taking Eli to the zoo. He is still too little to fully appreciate everything, but he was certainly intrigued by all of the animals. I think he liked the aquarium the most. There is a shark petting area and Eli wanted to jump right in! He loves animals!

Feeding the giraffe.

Karen and Sara.
Eli and Sara trying to cool off in the shade. Actually, Eli was greeting everyone who was walking out of the restroom with a huge smile and big wave. Too funny!

Baby Shower and Welcome Home Party!

On June 14th, we had our baby shower and welcome home party!! My sister was the hostess with the mostess and the party was just perfect!! She waited a long time to throw this party for us! It was everything I could have asked for and more. We were surrounded by so much love and support throughout our journey to Eli so it was such a joy to finally be able to introduce little pea to many of his aunts, cousins, and friends. Eli clung to his momma for about the first 10 minutes of the party and then he was ready to introduce himself to everyone! I think he thoroughly enjoyed playing with all of the kids and getting many long awaited hugs and kisses.

Thank you, Shelly and mom, for such an amazing day!

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Readoption Day!!

We had Eli's Ohio readoption hearing on Friday and he is now legally Eli Oscar! Ohio already recognized his adoption, but we had to go through this process in order to get his name changed to Eli. We will receive his new Ohio birth certificate in about 6 weeks. After the judged announced that it was "official," Eli started clapping. His timing could not have been more perfect! The judge even gave Eli is own mini gavel.

We celebrated Friday evening at our city's annual "Boogie on Broadway." This boy LOVES to dance and he can really bust-a-move! He was not shy and charmed the crowd with his dance moves.




We got together with family yesterday for a little BBQ. Eli swimming with his cousins.
The coolwhip king.

Eli and papaw.

Hugs from Aunt Shelly.

Peek-a-boo

Kissing the coneflower!

Kisses, kisses, and more kisses

I can't believe it is already July! Where is the summer going??? Oh, I remember oh so clearly when I just wanted time to fly and I knew there would come a day when I would want time to slooooooooow down. It's hard to believe that Eli has been home for almost 2 months already! And, the last week has been full of so many surprises as well as some new challenges!

First of all, we are THRILLED to report that Eli has been sleeping through the night in his crib for almost 2 weeks now. He goes to bed between 7-7:30pm and we don't hear much of a peep from him until morning. If he wakes up, he puts himself right back to sleep. Amazing!! The flip side of that? Well, now he will not nap for longer than 30 minutes. Sigh....it is so strange! He wakes up crying and is sooooooo tired, but he will not go back to sleep. Lucky for us, Eli is such a sweet boy, even when he is dog tired. He is like a little energizer bunny.

One thing that may be contributing to his lack of napping is he has been learning so much new stuff lately! It is incredible and so much fun to teach and watch him learn new skills. The highlight of our week is Eli started giving us kisses!! Oh WOW!!! WE LOVE IT!!! It is the sweetest thing and just makes our hearts melt. He is very generous with his kisses, too! Overall, it seems like he has really opened up this past week in a whole new way. He is so loving and affectionate and seems so much more comfortable not only at home, but also with friends and family. For probably the first 5-6 weeks home (in addition to our time in Guatemala), Eli was very clingy with me and would scream whenever I left the room. That has pretty much disappeared. Now, he freely explores and plays while coming back to "check-in" with us and give lots of hugs. Then he is off again! Busy, busy, busy. He is so much fun and the joy of our lives. We are madly in love with this sweet, crazy, loveydovey boy!! Here are some pics from this week:

Pool party! I think Eli was more interested in drinking the water than playing in it!

Getting splashed by daddy. He LOVES the water, especially on his face!

Helping to plant flowers (yes, we are a little late in the game!). You can't really see it in the pic, but he had dirt ALL through his hair. He carried that clump of dirt around for quite awhile.

Checking out the flowers.

Yes! DIRT!!!!

KISSES!!!!!!!! Awwwwwwwwww!!!!!!